By Lyndsey Sweet
ECU Public History
Major
December 5, 2012
The
events of March 21-23, 1713 on a plowed Carolina field should still be
remembered today, three hundred years later. The problem began when the
colonists settled in the Americas. The colonists invaded the land the natives
had lived on for many years. One of the main causes of the Tuscarora War was
“colonists who would not allow them to hunt near their plantations, and under
that pretence took away from their game, arms, and ammunition.”[1]
The colonists did not understand that the natives did not know they were not
allowed to be on the colonists’ land, and as a result, hostile feelings rose
between the two groups. The colonists continued to expand, depleting the land where
the Tuscarora hunted and lived. This caused the beginning of the war in
September 1711. There was conflict off and on for the next few years, but the
Tuscarora were desperately trying to hold onto their homeland. It is important
to note that there were also internal conflicts between the Tuscarora Indians.
The northern Tuscarora did not feel the impacts of the invading colonists and
wanted to keep up with their successful fur trade with Virginia. As a result,
they did not want to fight.[2]
On March 23, 1713 West of present day Snow Hill, NC in Greene County, their
struggle was brought to an end.
North
Carolinians asked for help from both Virginia and South Carolina. Virginia did
not have much interest in North Carolina’s problems, and it thus did not send
any troops. They turned to South Carolina, who saw profit in helping North
Carolina. If they captured the Indians, they could sell them as slaves.[3]
With help from South Carolina, the North Carolinians launched their last attack
of the Tuscarora War. Colonel James Moore of South Carolina led 900 Indians and
33 white colonists into Fort Nooherooka. There the Indians killed, scalped,
sold into slavery, or buried alive at least 900 Tuscarora Indians. By March 23,
1713 the battle and the war was over. The survivors migrated northward, to
upstate New York.[4] This battle was significant because it
was Indians fighting Indians, and it was the last Tuscarora stronghold in North
Carolina.
The
events of March 21-23, 1713 should be remembered in North Carolina, and
specifically in Eastern North Carolina in Pitt and Greene Counties because this
battle took place on the land where we live. The Tuscarora people lived on the
land where we work and go to school. Studying and commemorating the events of
the Battle at Fort Nooherooka, and the related Tuscarora history can give
insight on the way many Indians felt during the time period. All over North
Carolina and the colonies, Indians were being confined to smaller pieces of
land, but did not know what that meant, which caused the resulting wars. These
Indian wars are often looked over by our society today, but had the Indians prevailed,
we may not be going to school or living in this area.
In
the three hundred year commemoration in March 2013, several events will be held
to commemorate the battle, as well as teach to Americans about the Tuscarora
Nation then and today. There will be an exhibition in both East Carolina
University’s Joyner Library and in the Greene County Historical Museum. These
museums will attempt to tell the story from the time the colonists settled in
the New World, through the Indian Wars, specifically the Battle at Fort
Nooherooka, and ending with the Tuscarora Nation in New York today. The
exhibitions have the potential to give an audience a view of what the times
were like both before and during the Indian Wars.
 |
| This is the colonel James Moore map of Fort Nooherooka. The map is the focal point of the exhibition. Property of South Carolina Historical Society. |
During
the commemoration, there will be a series of lectures, dealing with different
topics and aspects of the Tuscarora Nation. There are lectures on the tragedy,
their current homeland in New York, their language, and the repatriation
process, among many others. These lectures allow the general public to learn
more about specific aspects of the Tuscarora Indians, both past and present.
On
the last day of the commemoration, a monument will be dedicated near the
Nooherooka Fort site. The monument will be in remembrance of the Tuscarora men,
women, and children, who lost their lives, were held captive, or forced to move
from their homeland, during the battle. It is important to have something on
the site where the main battle took place because it is a reminder of the
sacrifice those Indians made so we can live, work, and go to school on the land
where they once hunted and lived.
The
last part of the commemoration, which I believe speaks the most about the
events of March 1713, is the migration walk. Members of the Tuscarora Nation
will be walking from the fort site back to their reservation in New York. This
migration represents the walk that the remaining Tuscarora survivors made after
the battle at Fort Nooherooka.
The
story of the Tuscarora Nations is largely unknown, even in the present areas
where they lived three hundred years ago. It is important for the public to
understand this specific tragedy, as well as many others like it across the
colonies. I encourage the public to attend the lectures that commemorate these
Indians and their story. The events that took place on March 21-23, 1713 are
among some of the most important in Native American and North Carolina history.
